28

It was still daylight when two blackout vans left Scanguards’ headquarters and headed for Oakland. Samson had authorized three more men in addition to the hybrids for this rescue mission: Zane, Quinn, and Oliver. Zane had volunteered, clearly itching for a bloody battle. The three vampires were riding with Damian, while John was in the van with Benjamin, Grayson, and Ryder, who was driving.

Everybody was armed to the teeth. In addition, John had donned the spare Kevlar suit and visor that Luther kept in Scanguards’ basement in case of emergency. It was the uniform of the prison guards at the vampire prison in the Sierras, where Luther, Wesley’s brother-in-law, consulted on security issues. The suit would enable John to help the hybrids gain access to the building the kidnappers were keeping the girls in, and open the gates so the remainder of the rescue crew could drive in and get out of the rays of the late afternoon sun.

As they were approaching the location Otto Watson had given them, John said, “You know what to do?”

“Sure thing,” Grayson said confidently. He patted the thermal vision goggles in his lap. “We should be able to figure out pretty quickly where in the building they’re keeping the girls, and how many men we’re dealing with.”

“Shouldn’t be too many,” Benjamin guessed. “There’re only thirteen girls. I doubt they’ll have more than three or four guys watching them.”

John had to agree with that assumption, though he wasn’t relying on it. But what he was relying upon was that the men they were dealing with were human. And eight vampires and hybrids could easily defeat a small army of humans.

“We’re here,” Ryder announced, slowing the vehicle. “I’ll get us as close to the entrance as possible without them being able to see us.” Ryder pulled the van alongside a few dumpsters and a row of pallets.

John peered outside through the darkened windows of the van. The building was a warehouse like so many on the docks. In the large yard that opened to the water, shipping containers were stacked up, narrow walkways between them. The building itself looked dilapidated and unused, but then so did many of the buildings on the docks, even those that were regularly used by legitimate businesses. There were two oversized garage-door style gates which were closed, and a smaller door next to it. Above it John noticed something.

“Ryder, can you see, is that a camera over the door?”

Ryder hesitated, then said, “Yep. Looks like it.” He reached for his gun and screwed a silencer onto the nozzle. “I can take it out. Give me a few seconds.” He opened the car door and slid out of his seat.

John lost sight of him for a moment, then Ryder appeared between the pallets and a dumpster and aimed. Despite the silencer, John’s sensitive hearing picked up the sound of the shot. The camera lens shattered and pieces of it rained to the ground, but John doubted that anybody inside the building would have heard anything. Cranes operating in the vicinity provided sufficient background noise to drown out the breaking lens.

John pressed his earpiece, through which he was connected to all members of his team. “Ryder took out the camera. Team one is going in. Team two, stand by. We’ll get you access through the gate. Team one, we’re on the move.”

He motioned to the two hybrids in the van and slid the side door open, then jumped out, Benjamin and Grayson behind him. Using the pallets and the dumpster for cover as much as possible, John approached the door. Ryder had waited for his sign and was now trying the handle. The door was locked.

It wasn’t a big hurdle, not for a hybrid trained in all manners of breaking and entering. It took Ryder only twenty seconds to pick the lock. Then he nodded.

“Lock is open,” John whispered into his mic. “Grayson, what do you see on the thermal images?”

“Nothing in the front of the building. You’re good to go in.”

“And farther back?”

“Can’t reach that far. Too blurry. There’s something, but it could be just a heater. Not sure yet. I’m going in with you.”

“Wait! Benjamin, I want you to go around the building, see if you can penetrate the walls with your thermal goggles from the other side. We need to be sure.”

“I’m on it.”

The wait seemed to last forever, though it probably only took thirty seconds, until Benjamin reported back. “Only a few heat signatures in the back of the building. Northeast corner. Either two or three. Most likely adults. Can’t get a reading on the kids, though it looks like there might be another wall I can’t get through.”

“Thanks, Benjamin. Any other exits back there?”

“One door, but it looks bolted.”

“Good. Come back.”

John made a sign to Ryder. “On my mark, Grayson and I will go in. Ryder, you’ll open the gate for team two, and Benjamin will cover us.”

Ryder nodded.

“We’re going in.”

Ryder swung the door open, and John slid into the interior as soundlessly as possible, his gun ready. Grayson did the same, weapon drawn.

The warehouse was only half full with pallets of boxes and crates. Despite that fact, John couldn’t see all the way to the back of the building. But that fact also gave him an advantage: he could use the crates as cover while moving toward the area where Benjamin had detected people.

John motioned to the two hybrids, and alternately, they covered each other as they made their way toward the back of the building. When they reached the end of the crates, John peered past them. There were several doors, two to the right of him, one in the northeast corner of the building. The door there was next to a window, which allowed him a clear view into the room beyond. It appeared to be an office. He heard faint voices coming from it.

“Only heat signatures I’m getting are from that office,” Grayson whispered via the mic.

“Nothing behind the other two doors,” Benjamin confirmed to John’s right.

“Okay, I’m going into the office. Stay behind me,” John ordered and charged forward.

It was only a few steps to the door. He kicked it open with his foot, his gun aimed at the men inside. There were only two. Both jumped up from their chairs where they’d been lounging with bottles of beer in their hands. The bottles now clattered to the floor and shattered.

“Fuck!” one man yelled.

“Shit!” the other grunted and lunged for a gun that lay on the desk.

He didn’t reach it. John was faster, and in a second the nozzle of his semi-automatic was pressed into the man’s forehead. “One move, and I’ll splatter your brains all over the floor.”

The thug froze. The other man didn’t make a move either. Grayson had his gun pointed at the man’s head. From the front of the building, John heard the van enter, then the sound of the gate lowering again.

John turned his head toward the door. “We got two guys in the office,” he told his colleagues over the mic. “Check the rooms next to this one.”

He heard somebody acknowledge the order, then looked back at the two men. “Where are the girls?”

Both men’s eyes widened.

“Talk. One of you,” John ordered, his jaw clenched. When neither of the two opened their mouths, he pressed the nozzle of his gun harder against the forehead of his victim. “I’m not the police. So I don’t have to adhere to any laws regarding use of lethal force against a suspect. I could kill one of you, maybe then the other one will talk. Shall we try that?”

“Don’t shoot,” his victim begged. “I’ll talk.”

“I’ll talk, too,” the other said quickly, probably afraid that he’d be killed if he didn’t.

“Good.” John eased up on the pressure on his gun. Behind him, he heard more of Scanguards’ men enter.

“The rooms are empty,” Zane announced. “Tons of mattresses, bedding, and the like. I can still smell them.”

“Thanks, Zane.” John glared at the thug in front of him. “Where are the girls?”

“They’re long gone.”

“Explain. Where are they?”

“On a container ship. On their way to Russia.”

“Fuck!” John cursed. “Who is behind this?”

“I don’t know,” the man claimed.

John whipped him across the face with his gun, making blood splash from his mouth, while he grunted in pain. “Who?”

“I’ve never met him.”

John glanced over to the other man who was held at gunpoint by Grayson.

“I haven’t met him either. He sends us text messages. Tells us where to snatch the girls, which ones to grab. He gives us all the details. Which ship to put them on.”

John looked back at his captive. “Is that true?”

The man motioned to the cell phone on the desk. “You can check for yourself. But there’s no number. We can’t call him, he can only call us.”

“How do you get paid?”

“Cash. He tells us where he leaves it, and we pick it up. Always a different place.”

John looked over his shoulder to Benjamin. “Check the phone.”

Benjamin did as he was told, while Oliver joined him and rummaged through the paperwork on the desk.

“He’s telling the truth,” Benjamin said after a few moments of silence.

John nodded. “And the girls, what happens to them once the ship arrives in Russia? Who takes them from there?”

Both thugs shook their heads.

“We only put them on the ship,” Grayson’s captive said. “Once they’re loaded and the ship’s gone, we’re done.”

John narrowed his eyes and growled.

“You have to believe me,” the thug closest to him pleaded. “All we know is that the girls are special orders for some hot shots in Russia. They pick them specially. We just have to make sure they get on the ship. I don’t know for sure, but I assume the boss has a crew on the other side to distribute them to whoever ordered them.”

“Oh fuck,” Oliver suddenly let out.

John whirled his head to him and saw him holding up a sheet of paper. “What?”

Oliver addressed the thugs, “Is this the manifest for the ship the girls are on?”

Both nodded.

Oliver cursed. “John, if I’ve figured out the time difference correctly, the ship with the girls will be arriving in Vladivostok in less than four hours.”

“Shit!” John’s heart sank into his knees.

“There’s no way for us to get there before they dock,” Oliver confirmed. “And once the ship docks, our chances of finding the girls are basically zero.”

John squeezed his eyes shut. No, he couldn’t give up. He could never face Savannah again if he couldn’t bring her little girl home. It would break her heart. And he realized then that it would break his too. Over the last few days, Buffy had become part of his life, although he didn’t know how it had happened. There had to be another way to getting to Buffy. A faster way.

“Then we just need to call in some help,” Ryder said from behind him.

John turned to him and locked eyes with him, when he suddenly realized what Ryder was referring to. “You’re right. Make the call.” Then he holstered his gun. “Zane, lock these bastards up in our cells. We’ll hand them over to Donnelly once the girls are safe and we’ve got their boss.”

“Pleasure,” Zane said, and from his facial expression John could tell that Zane was looking forward to inflicting a little pain on the bastards while transporting them back to HQ.

Fine by John.